Some of Carter's work in environmental philosophy is discussed critically by
Robin Attfield. Carter's state-primacy theory has been discussed by
Robyn Eckersley and criticized by
John Barry. and, most fully, by
Simon Hailwood. Carter has responded by arguing that his critics fail to take sufficiently into account the problems the military causes in modern societies: "it is telling how little attention green liberal critics of the state-primacy theory have paid to the role of the military and to its highly distorting effects. Failing to examine in any detail military requirements within ostensibly 'liberal democracies', whether existing or imagined, is more like simply ignoring an argument rather than answering it." Carter was one of the founder members of the London-based Anarchist Research Group.
Colin Ward has described Carter, with
Murray Bookchin, as one of the leading
eco-anarchist thinkers. ==Publications==